Throughout the first 11 months of 2023, the amount of money wagered on sports bets in the US topped $100 billion, surpassing the full year total for 2022. With the NFL playoffs now on deck in January, followed by the Super Bowl in February, it is likely that record betting handles are recorded throughout the next few months. This environment has proven advantageous for the newly-launched ESPN Bet sportsbook, which debuted in November. Though DraftKings and FanDuel are likely to maintain their domination of the US sports betting market, ESPN Bet will likely mount a challenge to their primacy across several states in 2024.
Related ETF: Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF (BETZ), PENN Entertainment, Inc. (PENN), DraftKings Inc. (DKNG), The Walt Disney Company (DIS)
The US is entering the hottest time of year for sports betting. Per GWS Magnify data, cited by Legal Sports Report, Americans spent a record 67.1 million minutes on sports betting apps in October, up two-thirds from the same month last year. All told, roughly $12.8 billion was wagered throughout the US on sporting events in the month of October, surpassing the previous all-time high of $11.6 billion set in September. It is likely that the online betting spend continues to rise in months to come as the NFL football season is now on the verge of the playoffs, which will culminate in February’s Super Bowl. As MRP noted last year, GeoComply recorded over 550 million geolocation checks on sports betting apps during the NFL playoffs from January 14 to January 29, 2023 – an increase of 50% from the same period in 2021. Prior to October’s record-setting utilization of betting apps, the previous monthly record for minutes spent on such platforms was recorded in February 2023.
SportsHandle notes that, with only some states reporting for November, US sports betting wagers have already surpassed $100 billion in the calendar year 2023. Just $93.8 billion in bets were accepted in all of 2022. Early indications from states that have already reported their November handles suggest another record-smashing period is on deck. New York is the largest state betting market in the nation and handled…
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